Introduction
Ever since Donald Trump left office in January 2021, he has been operating in the background. With his Twitter and Facebook suspended and his YouTube channel inactive, he has been making his statements on his own website. That said, his reach on social media is definitely far smaller than when his accounts used to be open.
Although he has been disappeared from the mainstream social media sites, he still has a significant influence on the Republican Party. For instance, he successfully managed to get Liz Cheney removed from her leadership position of conference chair.
Apparently, Trump has decided to put himself back on the foreground with a really big rally in Wellington, Ohio on June 26 and a Rumble account to boot.
The Ohio Rally
For the first time since leaving office, Trump held a rally to a very large crowd of supporters. There is not a definitive number on the number of people who attended his rally, but it was sure large enough that it had a very large overflow. Throughout his speech, Trump and his audience were very energized and enthusiastic.
For those not willing to or not having the time to watch through his speech, Trump touched on a number of issues criticizing the Biden administration's policies, the mainstream media, and RINOS (Republicans In Name Only).
When he spoke about Joe Biden, Trump pointed out at the latter's lethargy on his speeches. In addition, Trump heavily criticized how the Biden administration handled the border crisis where the YTD number of border encounters for 2021 has already exceeded annual totals of previous years. He pointed out at how the Biden administration did not secure the southern border and effectively encouraged illegal migrants to come over. Lastly, he also lamented how critical race theory is being pushed in schools and the military.
As for the mainstream media, Trump criticized them for initially rejecting and censoring the COVID lab leak theory from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. On top of that, he also expressed disappointment at the media's politicization and downplaying of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment option.
Trump also did not hesitate to call for certain Republicans to be primaried like Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez. He called Gonzalez a RINO and "candidate of Liz Cheney", and reiterated his support for former White House adviser Max Miller.
Trump Joins Rumble
As his YouTube channel remains inactive, Trump has decided to open an account on Rumble. As you can see, he has uploaded his Ohio rally speech as his very first video.
Compared to "The White House" YouTube channel, Trump's lone Rumble video has eclipsed Biden's in terms of views several-fold. You can sift through The White House channel's catalog and observe how each video struggles to reach 100K views, let alone get even close to that number. Not to mention, the like-to-dislike ratios continue to be abysmal. In contrast, Trump's Rumble video has already exceeded 700K views.
In addition, his channel is exhibiting very fast growth. When I checked his subscriber count at 11:30 EST, he had 215K subs. Approximately 8 hours later, his channel has grown to 277K subs which would put the hourly rate at 7.75K new subs per hour.
Trump's subscriber count at 11:30 EST.
Trump's subscriber count at 19:30 EST.
Comparatively, his inactive YouTube channel has 2.75 million subs and The White House channel has 1.9 million subs. Trump's Rumble channel will inevitably slow down in growth, but as of now, it's pretty impressive.
Closing Thoughts
It seems that Trump smells blood in the water. With Biden's pretty anemic performance at G7 and Kamala Harris's "visit, but not really a visit" to the southern border, Trump probably saw them as signs to capitalize on their mistakes.
And it's not just Republicans who are extremely critical of the Biden administration. For instance, Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar called Harris out on not actually visiting the problem areas like the Rio Grand Valley and taking the politically safe route. A day before Trump's Ohio rally, Joe Rogan went as far as to claim Biden is not a real leader and that while he is the United State's leader on paper, he's "out of his mind".
Something to note is that social media is not a reflection on reality. While Trump's Rumble account currently has a whole lot of momentum and while his speech has already garnered tons of views, that does not necessarily mean Trump is going to pull off a Grover Cleveland. Rumble has a smaller, more conservative audience compared to YouTube. As a result, Rumble may not be the best platform to reach out to independents and liberals. Of course, the counterargument to this is that Trump is already suspended from the mainstream social media sites, so he has no choice.
If Trump wants to get back in the White House, then he needs to win the independents over and flip liberal voters to the Republican side. He needs to intently listen to the concerns of Americans and have clear-cut solutions. His future collaboration with Texas Governor Greg Abbott on visiting the actual problem areas of the border is a good start.
